I beleive that Thomas Paine would have said that people were inheretly evil. That people were selfish creatures that only strove for their own comfort. This is because he repeatedly mentioned the terrible aspects of people in his writings. For example, this is shown through “society [being] produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness” (“Common Sense” 376). With this, it is clear that Paine believed people are not only selfish, but also wicked. He further elaborated upon his opinion when he recognized that man “might [have] labour[ed] out the common period of life without [having] acomplish[ed] anything” (“Common Sense” 377). That man was lazy and always has been unless their was some selfish motive for him to strive towards. The